The complete genome sequence of the ghost bat, <i>Macroderma gigas</i>

The ghost bat (Macroderma gigas) is a large carnivorous bat inhabiting monsoonal tropics and arid habitat across northern Australia and is currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. We sequenced long-reads of DNA using PacBio HiFi to generate a 2.00 Gb genome consisting of 313 scaffolds, and accompany this with short-read transcriptomes from five tissues to aid in genome annotation using Fgenesh++. The generation of a reference genome will assist in conservation of the species, particularly in relation to understanding the genomic basis of arid adaptation and ongoing development of non-invasive genetic monitoring techniques.